Reflections is a monthly column for teachers, by teachers on topics of interest to mathematics educators: lesson plans, book/resource reviews, reflections on classroom experiences, and more. If you are interested in sharing your own ideas with mathematics educators in the province (and beyond), consider contributing to this column! Contact us at thevariable@smts.ca.

Each month, the SMTS publishes a list of upcoming PD for teachers. For this month’s blog post, I thought I’d copy that—with a twist.

Summer is almost upon us, and most of us have our own summer professional development lined up (watch for my reflection from Twitter Math Camp later this summer). Summer PD is amazing! I know it’s supposed to be our time “off,” but with the hustle and bustle of the school year, great PD can be difficult to attend for many reasons. The number one advantage for me is that summer PD doesn’t take me out of my classroom!

With this idea in mind, I thought I would put together a list of some summer “PD” options for your students (or your own kids). Continue reading →

In this monthly column, you’ll find information about upcoming math (education)-related workshops, conferences, and other events that will take place in Saskatchewan and beyond. If travel is not an option at this time or if you prefer learning from the comfort of your own home, see the Online workshops and Continuous learning online sections below. Some events fill up fast, so don’t delay signing up! For more information about a particular event or to register, follow the link provided below the description.

If know about an event that should be on our list, please leave a comment below or contact ilona (at) smts (dot) ca.

Within Saskatchewan

Our own annual conference! Join us for two days packed with learning opportunities, featuring keynotes Max Ray-Riek and Grace Kelemanik and featured presenter Peg Cagle. This conference is for math educators teaching in K-12, and registration includes lunch on Friday and a two-year SMTS membership. Click here for more information, and keep checking our website in the coming months for registration details.

Volume 1, Issue 2 of The Variable has just been released! This issue features both brand new content, as well as content from our website that you may have missed during this busy month. Head to http://smts.ca/the-variable/, where you will be able to access and download this month’s and all previous issues for free.

As always, we hope you find this publication relevant and valuable for your teaching or personal interest – and if so, that you share it with your colleagues and invite them to join the conversation!

Welcome to this month’s edition of Problems to Ponder! Pose them in your classroom as a challenge, or try them out yourself. Have an interesting student (or teacher) solution? Send it to thevariable@smts.ca for publication in a future issue ofThe Variable,our monthly periodical.

Why was 6 afraid of 7?Math Challenge 2016Put the numbers 1 to 8 in the boxes below so that no consecutive numbers are next to each other (for example, 7 can’t be directly above, below, or beside 6 or 8). Note that consecutive numbers can be diagonal from each other.

In this monthly column, we speak with a notable member of the Western Canadian mathematics education community about their past, present, and future work, and about their perspectives on the teaching and learning of mathematics. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Diana Sproat, Mathematics Consulant of Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.

Diana Sproat has been employed by Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools for the past 22 years as a teacher, Teacher on Assignment, and most currently as the Mathematics Consultant. She completed her Masters of Education at the University of Saskatchewan with a focus in the area of mathematics and as a member of the Math Cohort. Diana was honored to receive the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society Math Service Award in 2014.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to have this conversation in the full swing of the school year! Could you tell our readers a bit about the work that you do as the Mathematics Consultant for the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division?Continue reading →

Reflections is a monthly column for teachers, by teachers on topics of interest to mathematics educators: lesson plans, book/resource reviews, reflections on classroom experiences, and more. If you are interested in sharing your own ideas with mathematics educators in the province (and beyond), consider contributing to this column! Contact us at thevariable (at) smts (dot) ca.

Last month, I was lucky enough to be able to spend a few days in San Francisco for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting and Exposition. This was my first experience at an NCTM Conference, and it won’t be my last! My days were full of sessions and I overbooked myself, because there were multiple sessions I wanted to go to that were scheduled at the same time. However, all of the sessions that I ended up attending were awesome (well, with the exception of one, which I walked out of because there weren’t enough materials for all participants; no big deal – I went teacher crazy at Target!). The amount of swag at the conference was ridiculous – my suitcase was bursting with all of the notepads, bags, pencils, pens, ribbons, pins, and t-shirts that I picked up. So many t-shirts!

Teachers love free merch!

Of course, the swag isn’t the only take-away from a conference like this. Continue reading →

In this monthly column, you’ll find information about upcoming math (education)-related workshops, conferences, and other events that will take place in Saskatchewan and beyond. If travel is not an option at this time or if you prefer learning from the comfort of your own home, see the Online workshops and Continuous learning online sections below. Some events fill up fast, so don’t delay signing up! For more information about a particular event or to register, follow the link provided below the description.

If know about an event that should be on our list, please leave a comment below or contact ilona (at) smts (dot) ca.

Within Saskatchewan

Our own annual conference! Join us for two days packed with learning opportunities, featuring keynotes Max Ray-Riek and Grace Kelemanik and featured presenter Peg Cagle. This conference is for math educators teaching in K-12, and registration includes lunch on Friday and a two-year SMTS membership. Click here for more information, and keep checking our website in the coming months for registration details.

Welcome to this month’s edition of Problems to Ponder! Pose them in your classroom as a challenge, or try them out yourself. Have an interesting student (or teacher) solution? Send it to thevariable@smts.ca for publication in a future issue ofThe Variable,our monthly periodical.

The problems are meant to be discussed in teams – we encourage you to pose them as a challenge in your classroom or your math club!

Grade 7-8 Problem: Magic decimalsMath Challenge 2016

In a magic square, the sums of the numbers in the rows, columns and diagonals are all equal. Use a 4×4 grid to make a magic square for these numbers: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, … 1.4, 1.5, 1.6.

The Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society is pleased to present The Variable: A new monthly periodical by the SMTS featuring articles, interviews, information about professional development opportunities, mathematical challenges, and other writings of interest to elementary and secondary teachers of mathematics (and all who are passionate, or even simply curious about mathematics education). We welcome a variety of contributions by mathematics educators at all levels – elementary, secondary, and higher – as well as by students. Find our first issue here!

In this monthly column, we speak with a notable member of the Western Canadian mathematics education community about their past, present, and future work, and about their perspectives on the teaching and learning of mathematics. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Kathy Nolan.

Dr. Kathy Nolan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematics curriculum, qualitative research, and contemporary issues in education. Dr. Nolan’s current research focuses on mathematics teacher education, exploring issues of teacher identity and the regulatory practices of schooling, learning and knowing. Bourdieu’s social field theory and theories of critical mathematics education feature prominently in Dr. Nolan’s work. She is the author and co-editor of two books, as well as author of more than 40 published articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings papers. In 2012, she was awarded a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for her project entitled Reconceptualizing Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education: Critical and Reflexive Perspectives. Within this qualitative research program, Dr. Nolan seeks to strengthen connections between teacher education, curriculum reform and mathematics education research by studying the interplay of different perspectives, or dimensions, of teacher education. One such perspective includes research into the design and facilitation of a professional learning community approach to teacher education internship.